Category: Lives of the Saints

Pope Francis will visit his tomb in Colombia on the 10th. CNA has a summary of the saint’s life here. I wrote a short biography of Saint Peter Claver here. CNA: During his trip to Colombia, Pope Francis will visit … Continue reading →

Aleteia, Philip Kosloski: Katharine Drexel was a pioneer in many ways. After seeing the plight of the Native Americans, she founded a religious order that she hoped could help relieve the suffering of the poor and vulnerable minorities of the country. … Continue reading →

Aleteia, Larry Peterson: His Muslim captors sensed and actually revered the sanctity of their prisoner. They told him if he would never say anything against Mohammad they would give him his freedom. He said he could never make such a … Continue reading →

National Catholic Register, Peter Jesserer Smith: A small group of Catholic faithful in Florida never imagined that a simple inquiry into a mysterious plot of land in Tallahassee would reinvigorate a dream shared over three centuries by the king of Spain, … Continue reading →

National Catholic Register, Kevin di Camillo: I have written elsewhere of the second-bestselling book of all time, Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ. (Second, of course, only to the Bible.). But what was the most influential book among medieval and Renaissance Catholics? Here I … Continue reading →

There are three saints who were actually born in what would be, or later became, the United States: Mother Seton, Catherine Drexel, and Kateri Tekakwitha, the Iroquois virgin. And one Blessed, Sister Miriam Theresa Demjanovich from Bayonne, New Jersey. Father … Continue reading →

As recorded by the Protestant minister Thomas Fuller in his Church History of Britain Rorate Caeli: After the lieutenant of the Tower had received the writ for his execution, because it was then very late, and the prisoner asleep, he was loath … Continue reading →

Below is a YouTube video from an older episode of Reconquest. For this show, I am joined by Dr. Alexandra Wilhelmsen. Our subject is Saint Ferdinand III, the Crusader and liberator of Catholic Spain, who united the two Iberian Kingdoms of … Continue reading →

National Catholic Register, Joseph Pronechen: Most everyone knows of Our Lady of Fatima. Most everyone has heard of St. Padre Pio. But how many know that Padre Pio was very seriously ill, bedridden, and Our Lady of Fatima visited him … Continue reading →

Aleteia, Meg Hunter Kilmer: Towards the end of his life, Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla (1861-1936) probably looked like a thousand other old men praying the Rosary after daily Mass. But his path to holiness wasn’t typical, nor was his pursuit of … Continue reading →

New Liturgical Movement, Gregory DiPippo: One of the most unusual true stories in the annals of Catholic hagiography is that of Bl. Carino, the assassin of the Saint whose feast is traditionally kept today, Peter the Martyr. Carino was one of … Continue reading →

Spirit Daily: When we last looked at Fatima, it was the death of little Jacinta Marto — youngest of the three seers. Likewise incredible was her brother, Francisco, little also, for in 1919, when he died a year before she did, … Continue reading →

Clinging to Onions: “The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism,” declared Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky in 2012. “We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.” This is especially … Continue reading →

Aleteia, Meg Hunter-Kilmer: The history of the Church in China is a long and complicated one, with mission after mission that lasted only a time before being driven out by persecution. In the 19th century, St. John Bosco (who influenced … Continue reading →